The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced an inquiry into regional mobile coverage.
It wants to determine if regulating wholesale access to some mobile services could improve consumer outcomes.
ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said the ACCC recognised the importance of mobile coverage, provider choice and network reliability for people in regional areas.
“The telecommunications sector is changing rapidly, with new technologies creating opportunities and challenges for mobile coverage and competition,” she said.
“At the same time there are growing calls for the ACCC to intervene to regulate wholesale mobile services, particularly in regional areas.”
Ms Brakey said there was a range of views on the best way forward and the ACCC would carefully examine these over a 12-month period.
The ACCC said in the statement that new technologies, including satellite-based services and network-sharing arrangements, were changing the way mobile services were delivered in Australia.
One option was to “declare” a single wholesale service for regions and for other mobile providers to be given regulated access to that provider’s services, infrastructure or network.
“We continue to see significant interest in access to mobile networks, including from regional and consumer groups, industry participants, as well as through parliamentary processes and recent reviews,” Ms Brakey said.
“This inquiry will allow us to examine current market conditions and new technologies through a public, evidence-based and consultative process before deciding whether regulation is needed.”
The inquiry will consider:
- How mobile coverage and consumer needs are changing, particularly in regional and remote areas
- The current state of competition in the supply of mobile services and how the proposals may affect competition
- Whether consumers have meaningful choice between mobile providers
- How regulation could affect investment in mobile networks
- The role of new direct-to-device low earth orbit satellite services and their potential impact on investment, competition and consumer outcomes in the Australian mobiles market.
The ACCC will soon release a discussion paper setting out the issues and inquiry process in more detail.
More information is available here
